Chapter 5
She looked around quickly and picked up the pace when a prickling feeling ran down her spine. What if Burly followed her, was luring her out here to get rid of her for good? He already didn’t mind shooting at her once, he’d probably do it again.
She willed her feet to run; she burst through some high plants and tripped over a log. She fell into something hard, but it wasn’t the ground. She was still standing up a little. Panic seized her when she felt something wrap around her. She began to struggle and tried to reach in the bag over her shoulder, but a hand gripped her wrist harshly.
She pushed back against a hard chest as she looked up, her eyes locked with a pair of smoky-gray eyes. She froze.
~
Justin never expected the fragile-looking woman to fall into him after bursting through the tall plants in front of him. She began to struggle against him. He pulled her up against him tightly and grabbed her wrist when it went towards the bag over her shoulder, no doubt for a weapon, “Hey, easy, I won’t hurt you.” He whispered as his eyes locked with her violet eyes.
Then he took the rest of her in, she was only in a t-shirt, that was filthy, and nothing covered her legs. He didn’t want to know what was under the shirt. Her face was bruised badly and cut up. She wasn’t even wearing shoes. She looked so undernourished as well.
“Please, don’t take me back, I can’t go back! Let me go!” her voice was high-pitched and borderline hysterical.
He clamped down on her more, “I’m not going to hurt you, just calm down for me, where do you need to go?”
“The police station, wherever that is.” She continued to try to get out of his embrace.
“Okay, I can get you there,” Justin reassured as he looked her over again. He didn’t match any of the missing girls. He was a little confused. “What’s your name?”
She froze as she stared up at him, “One six nine.” She answered briefly.
“I’m sorry? One six nine? That’s not a name.” He scoffed a little. Apparently, she was hiding something, but surely she couldn’t think he was that stupid, could she?
“Well, that’s what I’ve been called since for as long as I can remember, so I guess it is my name.” She whispered.
Justin shook his head, “So, you don’t have a name? Any family?” he asked, trying to figure out why he was just standing there chit-chatting while his niece was missing.
“I don’t know.” She sobbed out.
“Okay, easy, Hun, don’t cry, come on, my ride is back this way toward the road, we’ll get you to the station.” He spun them around and slowly let go of her but slid his hand down her arm to her hand. He led the way back to his bike. How did this girl not know her name or if she had any family or not? He sighed, the sooner he got her to the station, the sooner he could get back to his search.
A tingling feeling ran over his body, stabbing at him sharply. He quickly made a move toward a tree, pulling the young girl with him just as a shot rang out.
She covered her ears and looked like she was going to start crying again.
He hauled her up in front of him and pressed his finger to his lips. She nodded.
“Oh, come on, sweetheart, you’ll be safer with us!” they heard the male voice shout.
Justin felt the girl move closer to him. He tightened one arm around her and pulled her even closer to him but off to his side, freeing his other hand and grabbed his 9 mm. He heard her gasp a little, but he didn’t look at her, he just squeezed his arm gently.
He had to figure out how to get them out of there without getting caught.
“Come on, sweet thing, you’re probably hungry ad cold, I know what you left in.”
The girl shivered and clutched his white t-shirt in her hand as she dug her face into it.
He squeezed her arm more, and her violet gaze lifted a bit, Justin motioned with his gaze to a tree off to the right of them.
She looked to the tree then back to him, she nodded.
He positioned her in front of his tall, muscular body and slowly made their way to the tree. Once they got a good distance away, he’d make them run for his bike.
They got behind the next tree and stood still for a few when another shot rang out, gliding past them and smacked into the tree in front of them.
“Damn,” Justin grumbled a little. He pulled the mystery girl back against him tightly. He could fire back, but he didn’t want to give away their precise location or that the poor thing wasn’t alone anymore. He was at a loss of what to do.
He picked the small thing up and ran for another tree that was off to the side of the one that took the bullet. He stood still for a minute, then headed for the other trees and weaved back and forth. He felt nails digging into his skin on his arm. He kept going when he didn’t hear anymore shouting or shots. He continued to weave between the trees. He finally heard the traffic, so they were now close to the road. He weaved back to where his bike was, he sat the fragile thing down beside the black beats. He jumped on and sprung it to life.
He turned back to the girl. She was in no shape to ride a bike, but what choice did they have? He reached his hand out to her, “Come on, darlin’, we’ve got to go now.”
Her hand trembled as she reached for his, and he helped steady her as she climbed on behind him. He took the hand and placed it against his chest. He pulled her closer to his back by her bare leg then took his other hand placing it beside her other hand, “Okay, hold on tight!” he shouted and kicked the stand up and reeved the bike, taking off back to town just as another bullet barely missed them. The bullets kept coming Justin just prayed none of them would land the target they were trying to hit. If something happened to this girl, it would be the end of Marnie, and he would hate himself the rest of his life for letting everyone depending on him right now down.